Gail Hennessey's Website for teachers/young people-Should cursive writing still be taught in school?

I was watching Weekend Today and the topic was~ "Is cursive writing something we should still be teaching in school?When I first starting teaching 6th grade~ back in the days of being self-contained~ I remember planning for 15 minutes of cursive penmanship instruction. The students usually copied a famous quote or a funny tongue twister. Then~ as more and more responsibilities were placed upon the day~ penmanship went on the sidelines. The alphabet~ which was posted~on a bulletin board~ was taken down~ to make room for quotes to live by~ flags of countries~ students' work~ etc.Do we still need to teach cursive writing? Even the youngest child seems to know how to get around a keyboard and most teachers prefer receiving typed work over handwritten. Having never had a very good cursive penmanship~ I think it's great to introduce primary students to the "art of cursive writing"~ but by upper elementary~ keyboarding skills are much more valuable. The news report stated that 44 states now say that cursive writing is optional in the classrooms and in the states of Indiana and Hawaii~ cursive writing has been taken out of the curriculum completely. What do you think?